Emergency bug killer

[PinkinPA]

I'm noticing that a quite a few of my veggie plants are dying off. I've only seen ONE of those yellow lady bug looking bugs. What should I do?

I'm losing a watermelon, zucchini and pumpkin.

I want to treat them with something till I get some neem this weekend. What should I do?

[lunita1]

Originally Posted by PinkinPA

I'm noticing that a quite a few of my veggie plants are dying off. I've only seen ONE of those yellow lady bug looking bugs. What should I do?

I'm losing a watermelon, zucchini and pumpkin.

I want to treat them with something till I get some neem this weekend. What should I do?

Those are cucumber beetles, but they don't usually just make your plants up and die. They chew on the leaves, so you'd see holes everywhere. If that's not the type of damage you're seeing, maybe you need to look further to find the culprit?

Try this link for cucumber beetle control. http://www.ghorganics.com/CucumberBeetles.htm one idea that jumped out was vacuuming them up.

Eta: They can be vectors for diseases like bacterial wilt. If that's what your plants have, controlling the beetles now won't cure them.

[N&M]

No ideas for you Pinkin, but I'm in the same boat! The cucumber beetles are doing in my thriving cukes, and I'm afraid they are going to infest everything else. I think they are transmitting the wilt, as per the pp. Whole vines wilt up and die when the adults chew on them. I've not had this problem before, but I really want to solve it before it gets out of control.

I too will try the neem, and nematodes, but does anyone know how to control the disease the beetles are transmitting?

Thanks!

[stephienoodle]

Originally Posted by lunita1

Eta: They can be vectors for diseases like bacterial wilt. If that's what your plants help, controlling the beetles now won't cure them.

We have wilt terribly here. I cannot get anything in the gourd (luffa, cucumber, canteloupe, watermelon, squash, etc) family to survive to properly produce. Definitely look it up - if it is wilt, there isn't much you can do once the plant is infected.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by PinkinPA

I'm noticing that a quite a few of my veggie plants are dying off. I've only seen ONE of those yellow lady bug looking bugs. What should I do?

I'm losing a watermelon, zucchini and pumpkin.

I want to treat them with something till I get some neem this weekend. What should I do?

It sounds like you have squash vine borers. Unfortunately, once the plant has started wilting, there's not much you can do about them.

[N&M]

Ok, applied neem spray this morning to cukes and neighboring squash and melons. Hoping to deter continued munching by the beetles. Also, I cut off all affected vines on the cukes. Only 2 out of 3 cuke varieties had any wilted vines, one much more so than the other, although I am sure all 3 have the beetles since they are located within pretty close proximity. Maybe my slicers are more resistant to the wilt than my picklers.

Pinkin, I'll keep you posted if it works. Let me know if it works for you!

[PinkinPA]

Thanks everyone. I think my one zucchini is completely done. It looks so sad. I think I might be able to save the other plants for the most part.

I just read how calendula keeps alot of these bugs away so I'm going to pick a bunch of the plants and blend the with some water and spray away.
I'll let everyone know how that goes.